Parents help your children make recycled paper at home.

carta riciclata

In recent years, people’s knowledge of recycling has increased. Paper recycling has become important and separate waste collection is practised by everyone.

The culture of recycling should be at the basis of environmental education. The recycling of paper can become a cute game between adults and children in order to understand its importance.

Recycling paper at home is a creative way to tell children that it is possible to save trees by bringing the same paper back to life numerous times. The white paper will become a bit darker, and those little coloured marks that can be seen on the paper are nothing more than the numerous stories that the sheet of paper can tell us.

To make sheet of recycled paper at home, all you need are some everyday items including:

– Scissors or a document shredder;
– A blender;
– A press (like presses used to press flowers);
– A sieve;
– A container;
– Tea towels;
– Water.

If you have these objects available, follow our instructions and you can easily try your hand at DIY recycling.

  1. First, cut the paper in small pieces: if you have to dispose of a lot of paper, you can use a document shredder to speed up the operation.
  2. After cutting the paper, place it in a container and, once it is covered with water, let it soak for approximately 12 hours.
  3. After this time, remove the paper from the water and, after having squeezed out as much water as possible, shred it with the a blender. If it is difficult to shred in the blender, add some clean water to the blender to make this operation easier. If you want to obtain a rough and thick paper, do not excessively blend the paper, but, if you want a light and homogeneous paper, leave it in the blender for some time.
  4. The squeezed mixture must be placed in a bowl with some water again (2 to 3 cm of water is sufficient). Chose a bowl that is large enough to accommodate the sieve.
  5. Now, add and mix some upholstery glue to the water and sift the mixture.
  6. After having eliminated the water from the mixture and having sifted it well, the mixture must be pressed. To do this correctly, it must be spread between two humid tea towels and then placed in the press.

After this, remove one of the two tea towels and leave the sheet you have just made to dry.

…Have fun and good luck!!